Arduino

Arduino is an open-source platform allowing interactive designs and environments. It is a basic chip board that can be programmed to receive input from it's environment using a variety of different sensors and also control other objects.

Input/Output

Sensors:
button, switch, potentiometer, joystick, flex, Accelerometer, light, IR, LDR, ultrasonic, RFID, temperature, humidity.

Indicators/ Actuators: LED's, LCD displays, lasers, buzzers

beepers, speakers, MP3 audio players, synthesizers, dc motors, stepper motors, servo motors, solenoids, muscle-wire, electromagnets, relays, pumps, hydraulics.

Network, web io, Bluetooth, Ethernet, WiFi, Zigbee, etc

For the purpose of this workshop, we used the Arduino Uno and given an accelerometer, breadboard, resistors, wires, and LED lights to create a basic interactive prototype.

Arduino needs to be programmed and the language it uses is similar to a simplified C / C++ computing language.

The objective was that the LED lights would blink either slow or fast depending on the input from the accelerometer.

^Here is a video of our actual working prototype.

*This workshop positively impacted me and made me realize how much I enjoy the blend of the technical and artistic aspects of design as many more possibilities could be done with my own work and it is readily available without needing to have an engineering or computing background.

Arduino Mega2560, Arduino UNO, Arduino Mini, Arduino Nano and Lilypad Arduino.